China sticks to its guns on emissions ahead of G8 meet

BEIJING (AFP) — China said Thursday it was eager to discuss “long-term” goals on fighting climate change at the G8 summit but stuck to its position that rich nations must lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are ready to discuss the establishment of a long-term global goal to cope with climate change including sustainable development, emissions reductions and efforts to tackle climate change,” said Chinese official Su Wei.

But Su, head of climate change issues at China’s economic planning agency, repeated Beijing’s position that China and other developing nations were the “victims” of climate change caused by the emissions of developed countries.

“Actually, developing countries are innocent and they are the biggest victims of climate change,” Su said in a briefing ahead of the summit.

China and the United States are the world’s top sources of industrial and other emissions blamed for global warming, which is expected to be one of the top issues at the G8 meeting next week in Japan.

Kid Rock resurrected

Just in case there are any lingering doubts, it takes Kid Rock about 12 seconds to add ammunition to the argument that he is indeed living the surreal life. The man known as the Early Mornin’ Stoned Pimp to his fans, Robert James Ritchie to his mom and dad, and Bobby to his friends and associates is headed to the golf course when he calls the Georgia Straight on his cellphone from his hometown of Detroit. Cheerfully admitting that he’s not exactly in danger of knocking Tiger Woods off the PGA tour, Rock is nonetheless stoked about his impending tee time.

The 37-year-old rap-rocker turned American-music mixologist is hopped up partly because he’s in a car with his buddies, and partly because one of those buddies has promised to help improve his game. And that’s where things get surreal. Forget getting tips from an above-average hacker who’s learned everything he knows at the local country club; when you’re Kid Rock, you don’t hang with the little people, you roll with the stars.

“I’m getting ready to fucking go try this thing they call golf,” the easygoing Rock says with a cackle. “Actually, I’m getting lessons today. John Daly is going to teach me how to golf.”

Beach goer takes chainsaw to fence

A chainsaw wielding beach lover took matters into his own hands by cutting down a private fence that divided Balm Beach and outraged the local community.

“It’s a shock because we’ve worked hard over two years to work the proper channels on this issue and have never advocated any violence or destruction,” Save the Beaches spokesperson Doug Lorriman said of the July 29 incident.

“Some people feel so frustrated, they took it into their own hands,” Lorriman said.

The fence dividing the Tiny Beaches Road property of a private citizen from the rest of Balm Beach has been a hot topic in the area for years as local ratepayer associations worked to have the fence removed. The difficulty is that the owner of the home hasn’t broken any laws by erecting the fence, which prevents pedestrian traffic along the water’s edge.

“There needs to be political action on both municipal and provincial fronts and, until now, there hasn’t been either,” Lorriman said.

Get ready to rock, needlepoint-style

Aren’t you supposed to get better at something if you keep trying? You may, for example, take your midlife crisis in the form of a triathlon and find yourself flailing on your back in the swim portion, looking up to realize that not only are you not doing the smooth front crawl you imagined but you’ve been heading in the wrong direction for much of the race.

That will probably get better with time – a little more experience and practice, perhaps some therapy.

More time, however, did not help with the two games on offer this week. Both started strong and then faded fast.

First on the bill is Guitar Hero: On Tour for Nintendo’s dual-screen portable, the DS. The Guitar Hero brand, built around a series of games that make music interactive using life-size instruments and on-screen cues, has mushroomed over the past three years – few recent trends have been so thoroughly monetized. Walking into a video-game store now feels more like entering a music shop run by Fisher Price, given the number of fake plastic guitars and accessories of all kinds for Guitar Hero and its spiritual successor, the multi-instrument party game Rock Band.